Community Highlights

Long-lived hydropower infrastructure must be kept well-maintained and periodically modernized to ensure functionality and safety—particularly in the face of altered rainfall patterns and flood risk due to climate change. To inform emergency and safety planning in the state of California, a consortium of researchers funded by the Yuba Water Agency, California Department of Water Resources, and the National Science Foundation developed ARkStorm 2.0, which simulates possible 1000-year extreme storm and flood scenarios. Based on historic megastorm events in California, ARkStorm 2.0 also incorporates the effects of climate change and advanced climate and hydrological science to improve simulations of these possible weather events. The information in ARkStorm 2.0 about extreme storm and flood scenarios can help inform dam safety investments and emergency planning, to prepare for extreme weather events that can lead to spillway damage, downstream erosion, and even dam failure. 

Learn more about ARkStorm 2.0.

River infrastructure, such as locks and dams, alters water flow patterns in ways that can affect river species and habitats. The Sustainable Rivers Program is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and The Nature Conservancy to find sustainable ways to manage river infrastructure and water flows that maximize benefits to both people and nature. Specifically, the program helps determine environmental flow requirements for rivers—the water flow on either side of a dam necessary to support river species and habitats—and operating plans for infrastructure that use these flows. The program takes a collaborative approach that combines science and stakeholder engagement to review new environmental flow patterns and modernize river infrastructure. Since 2002, the Sustainable Rivers Program has grown to include 44 rivers and 90 associated reservoirs and dams. 

Learn more about the Sustainable Rivers Program from The Nature Conservancy and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.